A.J. Franzman

Here's what I have. It's a work-in-progress, subject to change -- most notably, the folders under "By Brand" are likely to change, as I don't intend to have a folder for any brand with less than about 10 games. My directory system uses several abbreviations mostly made of 3 capital letters. For example, "PRO" = "prototype"; "CTL" = "control(ler/s)", etc. There are many more such abbreviations not seen here, which I use in the filenames. Names in [brackets] are folders which contain one or more sub-folders. Names without brackets are folders which contain only program binaries. Folders which contain sub-folders do not also contain "loose" binaries; any given Harmony menu screen will be filled with either sub-folders or binaries, never both. The "All Games Main Version" folder (probably equivalent to your "A to Z" folder) will contain only games, and only the best available NTSC version of each. Duplicates of these exact same files will also be found in the "By Brand", "By Number of Players", "By Controller Type", "By Genre", "Homebrews" and "Playable PROs & WIPs" folders where appropriate. The "Less-Complete PROs" folder (in the "Alternates" folder) will contain earlier versions of prototypes found in the "Playable PROs & WIPs" folder. The remaining folders should be self-explanatory.

[All Games Main Version]

[By Brand]
  20th Century Fox
  Activision
  Apollo
  Atari
  Bit Corporation
  CBS Electronics
  CCE
  Coleco
  CommaVid
  Data Age
  Ebivision
  HES
  Home Vision
  Imagic
  Junkosoft
  Mattel
  Mystique-PlayAround
  Parker Brothers
  Quelle
  Sega
  Self-Published
  Spectravideo
  Starpath
  Suntek
  Telegames
  Telesys
  Tigervision
  U.S. Games
  Xonox
  Xype
  Zellers
  Zimag-Emag-Vidco

[By Number of Players]
  0
  1
  2 Only, Simultaneous
  2 or more Alternating
  2 or more Simultaneous
  3 or more Simultaneous

[By Controller Type]
  Joystick
  Paddle
  Driving
  Keyboard-VTP-Kids'
  Multi
  Litegun-Mindlink-Other

[By Genre]
  Adult
  Adventure
  Arcade
  Board + Card
  Children's+Educational
  Horror
  Martial Arts
  Maze
  Media Tie-in
  Puzzle
  Racing-Chase-Motrsport
  Shoot 'Em Up
  Simulation
  Sports

[Homebrews]

[Playable PROs & WIPs]

[Modern Hacks]
  [By Hacked Game]
     (Folder per Original Game Name)
  Accurized Ports
  PAL to NTSC Conversion
  CTL Type or Port
  Graphics + Play
  Play Only
  Graphics Only
  Palette Select
  Bankswitch Conversion  (Including Supercharger)
  NTSC to PAL Conversion

[Non-Games]

[Demos, Bad PROs & WIPs]
  Demoscene
  Images
  Music & Audio
  Kernel & GFX Demos
  Unplayable PROs & WIPs

[PAL Only]

[Alternates]
  [Vintage Pirate Hacks]
     [By Hacked Game]
        (Folder per Original Game Name)
     PAL to NTSC Conversion
     CTL Type or Port
     Graphics + Play
     Play Only
     Graphics Only
     Logo Chnge-Remove Only
     NTSC to PAL Conversion
  Alternate ROM Versions
  Less-Complete PROs
  Multicarts
  PAL & SECAM Versions
  [Harmony Incompatible]
      Over 32 KB
      Other

It's fairly common for CRT TVs to have some tilt or skew to the image, though this can be largely corrected by a competent TV repairperson. It's also very common for the image to widen where it gets brighter and get narrower where it's dark on a CRT; this is why the left edge of the Enduro screen has that step where the sky meets the grass. It may be possible for something like a capacitor kit to improve this flaw, but in most CRT TVs it can never be completely eliminated.

Re- Questions #2 and #3:

RF < Composite < S-video < Component < HDMI . . (this is a bit of an oversimplification but gives the general idea)

Please be careful with your terminology. Component video and composite video are very different things. Component video is two steps in quality above composite video. All of the mods I've ever seen on AA or elsewhere online have been composite video, or S-video (a.k.a. Y/C or Luma/Chroma). At the circuit level, the VCS produces a Luma/Chroma signal, which is the equivalent of S-video (one step above composite video). Thus, this is the highest signal quality that the machine is capable of.

That is not to say that a component video or HDMI mod for the VCS isn't possible, merely that it would not provide any picture improvement in the majority of situations.

To get any ostensibly higher-quality level output signal type such as component video or HDMI, would require an up-conversion, which is exactly what any television with the appropriate input jack will internally do with an S-video signal anyway. So, unless your TV has crappy circuitry and you use a very high-quality circuit for your up-converting component video or HDMI mod, there will be no visible improvement in quality when doing one of these mods versus an S-video mod. There will, however, be a very significant difference in price -- I estimate that a component video or HDMI mod would cost at least $50 more than an S-video mod, and possibly much more than that, depending on what is used to perform the up-conversion. There are several of us on the forums who are capable of modding a VCS for component or HDMI output but as far as I know, nobody's ever done it, because at this time it would be practically pointless, with no real benefit to justify the increased expense above an S-video mod. Perhaps sometime in the future if NTSC RF, composite video, and S-video inputs all become obsolete and no longer available on a large proportion of televisions, it might become worthwhile for those with significant disposable income to get their consoles modded for component, HDMI, or whatever the next new thing turns out to be. But that time isn't here yet.

From the manual and elsewhere in this forum, the Harmony cartridge generally ignores filename extensions, except the following ones that force a particular bankswitching type:

.2K  = Atari 2K
.4K  = Atari 4K (default)
.F8  = Atari F8
.F8S = Atari F8 with Superchip
.F6  = Atari F6
.F6S = Atari F6 with Superchip
.F4  = Atari F4
.F4S = Atari F4 with Superchip
.FA  = CBS RAM +
.FE  = Activision FE
.3F  = Tigervision 3F
.3E  = 3E (3F with up to 4K RAM)
.E0  = Parker Brothers E0
.E7  = M-Network E7
.CV  = CommaVid
.UA  = UA Limited
.AR  = Arcadia Supercharger
.DPC = DPC (Pitfall 2)
.084 = 0840 Econobanking

There's also one special filename: AUTORUN
I don't know if it's case-sensitive (probably not). If a file with this name is in the root directory of the SD card, the Harmony menu will be skipped and whatever game has this name will be run. It will not be exactly the same experience as plugging in an original cartridge with that binary, though; the Harmony spinning logo will briefly appear as the game loads. To make the Harmony appear to behave EXACTLY as an original cartridge, the Harmony must be "flashed" with the game binary (replacing the multicart BIOS) using the programming software.

I just hope nobody comes along and makes a VCS game that's actually named "AUTORUN"...

I'm glad you were able to confirm that there is a firmware bug. I just found out that the console I was using may have some issues with certain controller inputs, and I thought that that may have been the reason I was experiencing odd Harmony behavior.